GameMastery Flip-Mat: Mountain Pass

Flip Mat: Mountain Pass features broad mountain terrain with a path winding through its treacherous peaks. The map also features numerous ambush cliffs and the remains of a crumbling tower, all of which make for perfect adventure sites. The Flip side features a mountainous approach to the pass.

Solid

Pretty specific on the one side. Assumes towers and snow in the mountains. Would have to build an encounter around the map.
Flip side is blank. Blank maps galore already, this one is in white. Who cares.

The Two Towers: unfortunately uncool

Platinum (aka 'WOOHOO!') aspect: Graphics give a good idea of elevation, both for the pass itself and the boulders lying within.

Gold (aka 'Why You Buy') aspect: Instant full-color setup. This kicks the crap out of drawing it out yourself onto a pad of paper.

Electrum (aka 'Cool But Weird') aspect: Skulls. Pile of them in a 10' nest, then another pile of 3 of them near one of the towers. Then yet another 2 loose ones by the entryway. Can you say 'ambush?' Oh, and there's a fire pit, but its in a weird spot.

Silver (aka 'The Eh') aspect: The path going through the pass is road-sized, rather than the trail you'd realistically expect. But that might explain...

Copper (aka 'Waste of Space'} aspect: Towers. {sigh} If I wanted towers, I could add 3D towers using Dixie Cups. Instead, If I want to re-use the mat I have to say every time, "Ignore the towers, they're not really there." Or do the reverse and add towers to every Mountain Pass moment. Shoulda been left out.

But the weird thing is that the flip side of this Mat looks like the 'entry' to the reverse side. That is, it appears that the graphic was too long and got flipped over. If you had 2 of these mats they would join together almost seamlessly to make a much longer set and be useful as a neat one-off battlefield. And for that, I admit the towers would work.

Gem Idea: Uhh. Hmm. There's a pretty narrow number of good snow modules and not sure how this fits in â€˜as is.â€™ So an idea to improve the usefulness of this product (and its counterpart, the Dungeon Flip-Mat) would be to have fans write scenarios specifically for it. This could either part of RPG Superstar or just as a download to get more sessions outta this thing.

Almost Perfect

I think the new flip-mats are great. The only thing I would change on this one is to have at least one of the towers be giant sized. Of course I am going to use it in the next few weeks when my group gets to PF4 and they are going to Jorgenfist.

I love that they are two sided with a scene on both sides and from now on I plan to buy two of them so I am use them together for big encouters.